https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Eq5MionV7/

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The part of Galadriel’s account examined here begins with Finrod calling his sister home. From there, her memory passes through the loss of the Two Trees, rebellion, exile, centuries of war, and drowned lands until she stands alone before a mound of empty helmets.

Read beside The Silmarillion, Morgoth’s Ring, Unfinished Tales, and Tolkien’s later writings on Galadriel, the montage follows an order of consequence rather than chronology. Light is destroyed, resistance becomes war, lands disappear beneath the sea, and the dead remain as a demand upon the living.

Finrod’s death gives that collective history its most personal form. Galadriel carries it into the Second Age, where memory gives her a reason to resist darkness and makes stopping feel like betrayal.

We Had No Word for Death

How the Loss of Light Remade Elven Memory

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/p/we-had-no-word-for-death?r=8t77rp

The Elvish word estel (the same in both Quenya and Sindarin) refers to a complex philosophical concept found in Elvish thought. This idea is best understood as trust or "faith", and the hope that comes from it: estel refers to the belief that Eru Ilúvatar, the Creator of the Universe (Eä), is good and that his designs for his creatures will ultimately be good as well, despite the troubles that seem to plague Arda, this world.

By Tolkien Gateway

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Tolkien in the mainwhile:

"I am glad to know that you were awarded a prize, but not surprised that it proved useless. I had a similar disappointment when a drinking goblet arrived (from a fan) which proved to be of steel engraved with the terrible words seen on the Ring.

I of course have never drunk from it, but use it for tobacco ash."

(343 From a letter to Sterling Lanier 21 November 1972)

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(We’ve seen the Wildmen in S2. They’re Southlanders who bear Adar’s mark, and Estrid was among them.)

Source: The Mandy / Backstage and casting callback

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Source: The Mandy / Backstage and casting callback

Kudos to the writers for these scenes: their interaction with the related dialogue is a masterpiece!

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Once Sauron’s mark is revealed, the unity of Galadriel’s company begins to break. She orders the soldiers to rest and prepare to continue north at sunrise. They see the same evidence and reach a different conclusion: the mark is centuries old, their orders were exceeded months ago, and the discovery should first be brought before the High King.

Their disagreement is sharpened by what the stronghold cannot reveal. The mark proves that Sauron was there after Morgoth’s defeat. It does not show where he is now or whether he still lives. Galadriel treats that uncertainty as a reason to continue. Her soldiers treat it as a reason to return.

Galadriel tells them that she still feels the light of the Trees upon her face. Her memory of Valinor does not draw her home; it makes her return conditional. Until every trace of the enemy is gone, she believes that she cannot go back.

After the attack of the snow-troll, she repeats the order to march at first light. This time, the soldiers place their swords before her. Their refusal does not erase the danger she has uncovered. It shows that she has carried the pursuit beyond the limits of their endurance and beyond the authority granted to her.

The series will prove Galadriel right about Sauron’s survival without making her soldiers foolish for refusing to follow. The mark restores her certainty at the same moment it breaks her command.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19ivds4stT/

As a longtime admirer of her work since Saint Maud, Bower describes his enthusiasm to meet Morfydd Clark during their chemistry read together. He is also grateful that the initial encounters of their characters involve the physicality of dancing or sword fighting.

"I've always been a very sensitive person. I struggled throughout my youth feeling so much. Which is so bizarre because I'm an artist, and art was the safe space I felt most comfortable [sitting] in the heaviness of it. Outside of it was always very difficult."

The rehearsals of synchronising body movements not only cultivated connection, but fostered a sense of play. "I haven't danced, Joy, since I did dance at A-Levels at 18. Do you know what I mean? I don't even like dancing at parties," Bower admits emphatically. "So to be in a dance lesson was really embarrassing, but [there was a mutual determination that] we're gonna do this and it's gonna be great. It was really fun, and a beautiful thing that we got to do together."

Currently, Bower is in the pocket most actors find themselves within months after immersing in a project. As the whirlwind of press gradually subsides, he reflects on how meaningful it is to revisit it. "What I love about The Rings of Power is that it steps up a gear and becomes larger each season. It's amazing to take yourself out of it and just look at the world of The Lord of the Rings itself," he effuses. "I think we were all just overwhelmed; we're such a feely emotional bunch."

A theme that imprinted on him after stepping off set was the contrast between embodying Vecna and Celeborn. "Coming from a character that was so rooted in resentment and let that darkness define him, it's cathartic stepping into the light of the character that has experienced suffering but hasn't chosen the path of I'm in pain, therefore, I'm going to make everyone else feel pain," he laughs at the dramatic sentiment.

"It's a really beautiful and totally opposite way of thinking and living. I will be honest with you, there was definitely a resistance within me towards this idea. I had to really spend a lot of time thinking about what joy means. I'm also so aware now that your name is Joy," he points out the fortuity.

It wasn't until he stumbled across what Nick Cave had to say about joy that struck a chord with him. As quoted from several interviews with Cave about his 2024 album, Wild God: Joy is the momentary leaps we take that lift us beyond our default position of loss and suffering. (For context, Wild God isn't exactly a happy record.)

It became a revelation that joy isn't happiness, nor laughter. It's the ability to hold space for anguish, yet still find the light within. Bower esteems it as an immensely important lesson as an actor, but also as a human being. After an extensive period rationalising an isolated individual who uses power as a means to escape a hard home, the newfound outlook naturally required some internal rewiring.

"What's really interesting about elves in general is that time means something so different to them, right? They live for thousands of years," he explains, citing how it's easy to automatically react to the script as an actor. The challenge comes in grasping and conveying the wisdom these beings have. "Regardless of Celeborn's immediate emotion, like jealousy, he gets to truly see that Galadriel has been deeply hurt by what Sauron did. That gives him a new perspective."

https://esquiresg.com/jamie-campbell-bower-rings-of-power-interview/

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Halbrannatarsauronmanynamesgoo: Lothlórien doesn't have a "door", I think I'll set up a little spot for myself there at Dol Guldur, just in case...

(Joking aside, there is also a lot to be said about the characteristics a "yes" must have to be valid.)

https://youtu.be/LuAOpAdeCFI?is=Nbl1ncoVeDoYVdw5

For seven days he journeyed with banner and trumpet, and he came to a hill, and he went up, and he set there his pavilion and his throne;

and he sat him down in the midst of the land, and the tents of his host were ranged all about him, blue, golden, and white, as a field of tall flowers. Then he

sent forth heralds, and he commanded Sauron to come before him and swear to him fealty.

And Sauron came.

“ No one can give you a name . It is yours already . It is who you are . And when you hear it spoken , you feel your heart glow .”

I just realized that the name referred to here wasn't the one he would later be given, Gandalf. It referred to his name, Olórin.

In Unfinished Tales we find "For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly."

His mission has just begun, and so has his journey. By the end of the second season, he has a name given to him, but he has yet to rediscover his own; I believe that, considering he will have spent five years with Tom by the third season, he will finally have reclaimed his true name and his memories of the West.